News / Published 2026-11-04

Sister Brother Manhole Cover Takes Tokyo's Grand Prix

Lisandro Alonso took best director for Double Freedom, Hu Ling took best actress for The Night That Binds Us and Narita Ryo took best actor for Two Cigarettes, Three Nights. The two trades agree on the winners and most of the money, but differ by $40 on the Special Jury Prize and by $20 on the Asian Future prize.

(See the reader poll and source context below).

Milcho Manchevski's Sister Brother Manhole Cover took the Tokyo Grand Prix at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival, and Variety and Deadline agree on the prize and on most of the cash.

A flat vector illustration of a single five-pointed star on a dark horizontal bar above four pale columns against a deep navy ground, with the words "A Grand Prix in Tokyo" in the lower-left corner.
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Milcho Manchevski's 'Sister Brother Manhole Cover' Wins Top Prize at Tokyo Film Festival — VarietyReported context: [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object]Not recordedNot recorded
'Sister Brother Manhole Cover' Wins Grand Prix At Tokyo International Film Festival — DeadlineReported context: [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object] [object Object]Not recordedNot recorded

THE SHORT VERSION

  • Variety reports that Milcho Manchevski's Sister Brother Manhole Cover won the Tokyo Grand Prix at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival, taking the top prize from a main competition of 15 titles.
  • Lisandro Alonso took best director for Double Freedom, Hu Ling took best actress for The Night That Binds Us and Narita Ryo took best actor for Two Cigarettes, Three Nights.
  • The two trades agree on the winners and most of the money, but differ by $40 on the Special Jury Prize and by $20 on the Asian Future prize.

A manhole cover wins in Tokyo

Variety reports that Milcho Manchevski's Sister Brother Manhole Cover won the Tokyo Grand Prix at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival on Wednesday, taking the top prize from a main competition of 15 titles. Variety calls the film a comic allegory about two siblings who strip scrap metal from the streets of Skopje. It describes a full house at Hulic Hall on a night of steady drizzle, a gentler send-off than the downpour that greeted the festival's opening on Oct. 26.

Deadline reports the same award under its fuller name, the Tokyo Grand Prix/The Governor of Tokyo Award, and puts the cash at $19,000. Variety states the same $19,000 and adds the local figure, JPY3 million. Deadline frames the setting as post-Communist Macedonia and says the siblings make their living stealing bronze busts and manhole covers, a description that matches Variety's scrap-metal line without repeating it. Deadline also dates the festival's run to Oct. 26 to Nov. 4, 2026, which Variety never states in full.

Two siblings, a bust and a fall

Variety gives the plot its names: Viktor and Malina steal manhole covers and copper busts, and a pilfered bronze bust of a national hero lands on Viktor's foot, after which the pair tumble into the lowest depths of the North Macedonian capital. Deadline reaches the same turn from the other side, saying an injury forces the two into contact with the Macedonian underworld, which is as close as either paper comes to naming what waits for them.

Variety lists the financing as a co-production between North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, Italy and the U.K., and notes that the film is Manchevski's first fiction feature since Kaymak. Deadline carries none of that. Variety also records that Manchevski had already left Tokyo, so producer Jane Kortoshev and the leads, Sara Klimoska and Filip Trajković, took the prize on the night, and Deadline names none of the three.

A jury that found little in common

Jury president Rolf de Heer said the jury chose the film “for the humanity and compassion shown towards its characters” and for being “a complex, coherent film that manages to be both touching and playful”, Variety reports. Deadline names de Heer as an Australian filmmaker and lists the same five jurors. The two papers spell one name differently: Variety has the actor as Watanabe Makiko, Deadline as Makiko Watanabe.

Variety reports that Tokyo Vice Governor Yamashita Satoshi presented the Governor of Tokyo Award, standing in for Governor Koike Yuriko, who could not attend. Deadline does not mention the presenter at all. Neither paper quotes the governor, and Variety's clause about the absence is the only account of it in either piece. Variety also reports that in his overview de Heer said the 15 competition titles had so little in common that they were hard to judge against each other.

Alonso, Hu Ling and Narita Ryo

Lisandro Alonso won best director for Double Freedom, which Variety says the festival presents as a kind of sequel to his 2001 debut La Libertad. Variety describes a solitary woodcutter whose life in the forest unravels when he takes in his sister after her psychiatric facility closes; Deadline calls the institution a mental institution. Alonso could not travel, and Variety reports that in a video message he said he hoped to come to Tokyo in the future with another film.

Best actor went to Narita Ryo for Mishima Yukiko's Two Cigarettes, Three Nights, which Variety calls Japan's only win in the main competition. Variety says he plays a longtime friend who reconnects with a stalled Kyoto illustrator, played by Matsuoka Mayu, across three nights in three cities. Narita was not at the ceremony and Mishima accepted for him. Best actress went to Hu Ling for Wang Jiangyong's first feature, The Night That Binds Us.

A zombie film and a 40th edition

The closing film was Yeon Sang-ho's Colony, a Korean zombie thriller set in a high-rise sealed off after a bioterror attack. Variety reports that Kaji Yuki, who voices the Japanese dub, said the infected's movements were performed by contemporary dancers rather than created with CGI, and that Colony opens in Japan on Jan. 1. Variety also gives the audience award, which carries no cash, to Teodora Ana Mihai's Heysel 85, a recreation of the 1985 Brussels stadium disaster in which fan violence before the European Cup final killed 39 people.

In his closing address, festival director Hisamatsu Takeo looked ahead to next year's 40th edition, which he called a milestone that would set the course for the festival's next decade. Related coverage on this site includes the Tokyo competition title from Fuxi, the Asia Pacific Screen Awards best film and the BFI London Film Festival winners. Two trades, one closing night and a set of prize amounts that agree almost everywhere: that is the record of the 39th edition.

Sources & reporting limits

  1. Milcho Manchevski's 'Sister Brother Manhole Cover' Wins Top Prize at Tokyo Film Festival — Variety
  2. 'Sister Brother Manhole Cover' Wins Grand Prix At Tokyo International Film Festival — Deadline
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